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Baker's Dozen: West tennis continues string of consecutive district titles

BY Kevin Hageland, khageland@starlocalnews.com

Published: Saturday, October 20, 2012 1:05 AM CDT

The Plano West tennis team has been through a lot of changes since 2000.

Different players, different districts, different opponents and different courts, yet every district season since 2000 has ended the same way for the Wolves: with a title. That streak extended to 13 straight district championships Wednesday evening as West defeated Plano East, 10-4, in the 10-5A Tournament Finals at Gleneagles Country Club.

West head coach Morgen Walker, as usual, was understated about the accomplishment.

"This is just the first step of the journey," he said.

His players were a bit more amped up.

"This is a really exciting feeling, said Emily Houston, West sophomore. "And hopefully we will all keep working hard so we can win regionals and then win state."

Houston, along with partner Alahna Reto, was involved in the final doubles match to be completed Wednesday as the Wolves duo faced Plano East's Ashwini Kulkarni and Agata Jakubowska on the No. 1 girls line. After splitting the first two sets, the Lady Wolves triumphed in the third, 6-4, by finishing the match with a service break.

"I think our serve really improved in that third set," Houston said. "Plus we know what to do in these third sets and how to play in them because we've been through this all before."

"It was a pretty tight match," Jakubowska added. "It was anyone's game really."

Having already picked up doubles wins from Brenden Hopper/Miles Lee (No. 1 boys) and Tristan Liu/Eric Hong (No. 2 boys), a victory at No. 1 girls would've pulled the Panthers to within 4-3. Instead, the Wolves held a 5-2 advantage with additional doubles victories coming from Adam Mlynarczyk/Maddy Thompson (mixed), Seema Prakash/Cassi Pollock (No. 2 girls), Brittney Bennett/Tori Simmons (No. 3 girls) and Anshul Pandey/Titus Strom (No. 3 boys).

"The difference between 4-3 and 5-2 is huge for us," Houston said.

But a hefty deficit wasn't enough to make East fade away.

"We had to work hard to win these matches," Walker said. "East is a pretty tough team, but we knew that coming in."

The Panthers' grit was on particular display in boys singles where Liu (No. 2) and Varun Srinivasan (No. 3) pulled out wins with the latter doing so in straight sets. The East boys also dropped a pair of three-set matches with West's Mlynarczyk triumphant at the No. 1 line (4-6, 6-4, 6-3) and Pandey victorious at No. 4 (6-1, 6-7, 6-2). Strom (No. 5) rounded out the slate of completed boys matches with a straight-set win for the Wolves.

"I thought we played very well," said Don Allen, East head coach, "especially our boys, who again showed that we are right there with West."

The other two points West needed to complete the race to 10 came in girls singles with Reto (No. 1) and Pollock (No. 3) winning by identical 7-5, 6-0 marks.

That wrapped up the 10-4 win and 13th straight district title for the Wolves.

"I've said it before and I'll say it again, the day someone in our district beats West will be a historical day in Texas high school tennis history," Allen said. "I know some people don't like being in the same district as them and always feel like they're playing for second, but I look at it from the perspective of once or twice a year we get to play one of the very best teams the state has to offer. Winning breeds winning; we see that at West and I'm hoping we are starting to create that mentality here as well."

West and East, which won a playback match Thursday over Allen, both advance to the Region II Tournament. That event is Friday and Saturday in Tyler.

Though the stout field will include teams like Austin Westlake, Round Rock Westwood, Lake Travis, Klein, The Woodlands and The Woodlands College Park, the No. 2 state-ranked Wolves are expected to be the favorites. West, which has won four Class 5A State Championships, has advanced to state the past two seasons.

"If I play Go Fish, I'm playing to win," Walker said. "It's going to be tough at regionals, but I think someone is going to have to play really well to beat us."

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